Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to The Australian's Money Positive podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: James Kirby, the World editor at The Australian, and welcome
Speaker 1: aboard everybody.
Speaker 2: Well, you may have dealt if you are.
Speaker 1: A property investor or want to be a property investor.
Speaker 1: You probably know that a lot of property investors seems
Speaker 1: to be a little bit obsessed with land tax and
Speaker 1: forever complaining about it.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's really changing as to what land tax is and
Speaker 1: the difference it's going to make if you're a property investor.
Speaker 1: It all started about two years ago the budget before
Speaker 1: last in Victoria, where there was a threshold for a
Speaker 1: long time we didn't pay land tax unless the evaluation
Speaker 1: was over three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2: They cut that fifty li brought.
Speaker 1: Just about everybody who ever had an investment property or
Speaker 1: holiday home or any type of property in Victoria into
Speaker 1: the tax net and actually hundreds of thousands of people
Speaker 1: with Prospvictoria getting there first ever tax bill at these weeks,
Speaker 1: which I'm sure they're delighted to see coming in in
Speaker 1: the post now. That had an amazing impact in the
Speaker 1: year and a half since that rule change happened in Victoria.
Speaker 1: Victoria is the weakest state in terms of price growth
Speaker 1: in Australia.
Speaker 2: It also has the least investment activity.
Speaker 1: And I'll just give you an idea about thirty percent
Speaker 1: only of loans going through the system in Victoria are
Speaker 1: in for investors. That would be more like forty percent
Speaker 1: in other states. So what's happened, I believe it or
Speaker 1: not the New South Wales state, but just coming through
Speaker 1: this week, they jumped on the exact same pivot that
Speaker 1: you like and found a way to drive more tax
Speaker 1: revenue out of the land tax area. What they did
Speaker 1: at the men's government in New Southwest, what they've done
Speaker 1: is they have they've done thing called they freeze the indexing.
Speaker 1: What that means is that it should be inflation indexed
Speaker 1: and it should.
Speaker 2: Rise all the time time.
Speaker 1: It's by the way, it's a million dollars in Sydney
Speaker 1: as a fift two thousand Victoria. And however, having said that,
Speaker 1: by freezing it at that level and not indexing it
Speaker 1: for inflation inflation running at about four percent a year,
Speaker 1: thousands of investors would be brought into the tax net
Speaker 1: and roughly one over a billion dollars will be brought
Speaker 1: in over four years by the Men's government with that
Speaker 1: small change. So what's happening is bictly there's a nationwide
Speaker 1: loop by the states on land tax.
Speaker 2: Queensland remains sitting there.
Speaker 1: The threshold there for lant taxis six hundred thousand. It's
Speaker 1: been there for ten years or more. We have to
Speaker 1: think that that would change as well. I've got someone
Speaker 1: to talk about this this morning. She's on the ground.
Speaker 1: She's a regular on the show and it's Kitty Parker,
Speaker 1: who operates as a buyer's advocate in the Sydney market
Speaker 1: and was very happy about the Sydney market the last
Speaker 1: time I talked to her, and then she wasn't quite
Speaker 1: as happy yesterday when you had just got the news
Speaker 1: of the land tax. Tell us your reaction and what
Speaker 1: it means kidding.
Speaker 3: Hi there, James, Thanks for having me today, and yes
Speaker 3: you are correct. When we chatted yesterday, I went our goodness,
Speaker 3: Here we go. The first thing for your listeners. Obviously,
Speaker 3: the land tax that's proposed to be implemented in New
Speaker 3: South Wales is slightly different to Victorious, so obviously the
Speaker 3: threshold is much higher, so it will be less likely
Speaker 3: to attract such a huge cohort of investors. There are
Speaker 3: those nuanced differences. However, obviously, as soon as the government
Speaker 3: introduces attacks for property investors, typically what happens is the
Speaker 3: investment market reshuffles. So will it have an packed on
Speaker 3: in particular we're talking about Sydney. Obviously it covers New
Speaker 3: South Wales, but predominantly Sydney. Will it have a reshuffling, Yes,
Speaker 3: it will. I believe it will. I understand as far
Speaker 3: as the data goes, there will be naysayers that suggest
Speaker 3: it will have less of an impact than one would
Speaker 3: believe that there's only a small cohort that this land
Speaker 3: tax will affect. However, what it does is people forget.
Speaker 3: There's that ripple effect and it will force a number
Speaker 3: of investors to I believe, restructure their cash flow. And
Speaker 3: I think it will have implications in other areas that
Speaker 3: I don't think the government has even touched on as yet.
Speaker 1: Okay, and obviously in Victoria there was that there's a
Speaker 1: straight correlation between the introduction of the taxes and investors
Speaker 1: moving out of the market and prices software. Now there
Speaker 1: are other reasons for that, but it's a major reason
Speaker 1: and cited as a major reason all the time by
Speaker 1: the industry.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's something of a.
Speaker 1: Investor's being boxed out around the country where they're if
Speaker 1: they're looking for the lowest tax regime for investing in property,
Speaker 1: the gold posts keep moving on them.
Speaker 3: That's true. And I think with the Victorian model, by
Speaker 3: setting the land tax thresholds so low, they literally caught
Speaker 3: in their net nearly every property investor. The New South
Speaker 3: Wales land tax proposition sitting at currently just over a
Speaker 3: mill it's not as dire as the Victorian situation. However,
Speaker 3: it will absolutely, inexplicably force property investors in New South
Speaker 3: Wales to consider other options when they fall into that
Speaker 3: cohort or not. This will absolutely lead to, I believe,
Speaker 3: a focus slightly away from Sydney property investment, as you
Speaker 3: rightly know, to other states that offer a little bit
Speaker 3: more of a favorable tax position.
Speaker 1: Right if you were a rational person, you'd say, perfect
Speaker 1: opportunity for Queensland Andrew Ghost to say, hey, listen, you
Speaker 1: know we're the states, we're the tax attractive states.
Speaker 2: But do you.
Speaker 1: Think that's how they're thinking or do you think they
Speaker 1: will actually just be next.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're necessarily thinking that way just yet.
Speaker 3: I think it's early days still that over the next
Speaker 3: twelve to eighteen months, I think inadvertently a number of
Speaker 3: property investors will look to other states to consider. And
Speaker 3: obviously Queensland has some very good capital growth stats on
Speaker 3: the cards, so it would make sense that there will
Speaker 3: be investors that pivot away from the Sydney market and
Speaker 3: towards states such as Queensland for the tax breaks.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, so you get that visually, get that tax hunting,
Speaker 1: which is entirely understandable. Foreign investor, Is there anything in
Speaker 1: people can do in relation to the land tax if
Speaker 1: you are an investor, is there anything you can do
Speaker 1: to minimize it as an investor before you start into
Speaker 1: property or before you make your next move.
Speaker 3: I think this leads into yes. The short answer is yes.
Speaker 3: And I think this leads into as I mentioned that
Speaker 3: ripple effect that I think we will start to see
Speaker 3: a higher level of interest only mortgages and potentially investors
Speaker 3: switching from principle and interest to interest only mortgage repayments
Speaker 3: to free up a bit of cash flow, but also
Speaker 3: to redistribute our say, their debt, so they red just
Speaker 3: have higher Usually it's a higher variable interest rate, they
Speaker 3: will redistribute their debt into other avenues that are a
Speaker 3: little bit more cost effective. So I think the ripple
Speaker 3: effect will actually be quite a change in uh, the
Speaker 3: distribution of mortgage loans R. That will be one of
Speaker 3: the potentially you know, a savvy investor is wanting to
Speaker 3: maximize their returns, minimize their tax and something like this
Speaker 3: land tax. I think there'll be a lot of smart
Speaker 3: folk out there that will look into how to circumvent
Speaker 3: paying this tax via If I have to pay this tax,
Speaker 3: where can I redistribute to pay less tax elsewhere? And
Speaker 3: I think that will be with mortgage loans and the
Speaker 3: type of loan people utilize. And these are the things
Speaker 3: that I don't think the government or a lot of
Speaker 3: folks have considered just yet.
Speaker 1: Interest This is an unlikely time to go interest only,
Speaker 1: isn't it? Because we were told that the rates are
Speaker 1: at their peak.
Speaker 3: This is true, however, without wanting to get into the
Speaker 3: nitty gritty, obviously, if you are somebody that will fall
Speaker 3: into the coport of this land tax and having to
Speaker 3: pay this land tax, you will be speaking with your
Speaker 3: accountant or financial advisor and probably looking at ways to
Speaker 3: minimize tax and going interest only, and the situation that
Speaker 3: you can set yourself up with with that will free
Speaker 3: up some cash flow and allow you to often offset
Speaker 3: those interest charges against your personal income tax and even
Speaker 3: help you save money on your principal place of residence
Speaker 3: and your debt towards that. So there are high level
Speaker 3: ways and means that you can restructure your debt in
Speaker 3: this situation do help soften the blow of this.
Speaker 1: New taxes coming in one door, so you can get
Speaker 1: some new offsets basically getting more tax deductible debt or
Speaker 1: at least restructuring existing debt that more obviously is tax deductible.
Speaker 1: Have I got that more or less in the tail
Speaker 1: of things? Okay, very interesting? Yeah, it's well, it's definitely
Speaker 1: beyond doubt now that whether it's coordinated or not doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter. But the major states already Victoria and new
Speaker 1: settlers have basically tightened up and moved to make more
Speaker 1: money out of land tax, which is already a controversial
Speaker 1: tax in the eyes of many investors for a variety
Speaker 1: of reasons. Okay, now what we might do take short break.
Speaker 1: I want to talk kitty about some a couple of
Speaker 1: issues that have come up with questions in recent times.
Speaker 1: One is about whether, for instance, you should ever buy
Speaker 1: with friends or mates. But it's coming great really as
Speaker 1: an issue, and I want to talk to her about
Speaker 1: that and a few other things in a moment. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Australian's Money Puzzle podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm James Kirby. It's Tuesday. We're talking property.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Kitty Parker, buyer's advocate in Sydney, regular
Speaker 1: a friend of the show, and she is with us
Speaker 1: this morning. Tell me, we get a lot of people
Speaker 1: asking because of prices, because of how difficult it is now,
Speaker 1: it would seem to make a lot of sense to
Speaker 1: go in with another the person to buy a property.
Speaker 1: Have you come upon us have you Have you ever
Speaker 1: worked as an advocate for what might be effectively a
Speaker 1: loose partnership.
Speaker 3: Yes, I actually have, James, I have probably not as
Speaker 3: as loose as just some friends that have recently met
Speaker 3: and they want to get into the property market. So
Speaker 3: you're going for this that you are absolutely correct with
Speaker 3: property prices, especially in Sydney where they're sitting at the moment,
Speaker 3: folks are really trying to think of innovative ways to
Speaker 3: get into the market. One of those ways is absolutely
Speaker 3: purchasing with say a trusted co worker or a trusted friend.
Speaker 3: I recently helt ironically this is probably the biggest one
Speaker 3: I've done. Five siblings, five people joined because each of
Speaker 3: them have had such low borrowing capacity but wanted to
Speaker 3: get into the Sydney market. And so there were literally
Speaker 3: five siblings joining forces just to try and get into Sydney.
Speaker 3: But I think as housing affordability moves further and further
Speaker 3: away from the average ossie, especially in Sydney, more and
Speaker 3: more there will be people joining forces with friends or
Speaker 3: co workers just to be able to get a footprint
Speaker 3: in the Sydney market.
Speaker 1: Your initial response to that, did you say, oh, no,
Speaker 1: this is going to be trouble.
Speaker 3: Initially, intuitively, of course you think this is going to
Speaker 3: be trouble. But the handful of times I have undertaken
Speaker 3: a by so friends, I do see in the background
Speaker 3: they get a legal besides the obvious purchasing contract and
Speaker 3: that situation. They go to a solicitor and they get
Speaker 3: an a legal contract written up between them. So they
Speaker 3: do usually, or I hope most of them will have
Speaker 3: a legal contract drafted. Some lot things in with a
Speaker 3: bit of a watertight framework. I would certainly suggest that
Speaker 3: as buying property, especially in Sydney, you know it's a
Speaker 3: substantial purchase. You'd not want to have a mate one
Speaker 3: day that you're you know, having a beer with and
Speaker 3: you decide to buy property with and a few months
Speaker 3: later that all turned south and you know you're committed
Speaker 3: to a mortgage or what not at quite a substantial
Speaker 3: debt with someone that you know you don't feel favorably for.
Speaker 1: So I imagine the well, I imagine it's straightforward enough to
Speaker 1: buy and you divide up the equity and who owns what.
Speaker 1: But it's the other end when you've got to if
Speaker 1: someone wants to sell, if someone doesn't want to sell.
Speaker 1: Do you know, can you remember with the people you
Speaker 1: worked with other five siblings, did they have any sort
Speaker 1: of exit clothes?
Speaker 3: They didn't. To be fair, and I can even say,
Speaker 3: even over the last number of years, the number of
Speaker 3: times not my clients, but when we're purchasing a property,
Speaker 3: the actual vendors I see more often than I would
Speaker 3: like to see vendors who are either siblings or family
Speaker 3: members or whatnot, squabbling over coming to an agreement to
Speaker 3: sell and so I think it really does disadvantage at
Speaker 3: that sales end if all parties aren't on the same page.
Speaker 3: But it's also while holding the property because obviously there's
Speaker 3: costs to maintain a property, and if you're not on
Speaker 3: the same page with your your fellow owner, even things
Speaker 3: like financially, if one folk you know, comes across hard
Speaker 3: times with work and they may not be able to
Speaker 3: pay you know, certain council rates or even things like that,
Speaker 3: and then if that debt falls on one other party
Speaker 3: because it has to be paid, that can cause friction
Speaker 3: of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what about when you're talking about when people
Speaker 1: are selling and there's I imagined typically this might happen
Speaker 1: with an inherited property and the brother and sister get
Speaker 1: the property.
Speaker 2: What happens is it that are there?
Speaker 1: They are they invariable scrubbing over the acceptable What is
Speaker 1: an acceptable amount to sell out is that.
Speaker 3: Usually it's price. Sometimes even the process, it can really
Speaker 3: come down to one party saying I absolutely want to
Speaker 3: take this property to auction, other party saying, gee, we've
Speaker 3: just received a fantastic pre option offer. We would really
Speaker 3: like to pull the trigger and just say yes. Obviously,
Speaker 3: if you're a buyer. You're not going to wait around
Speaker 3: for days or a week for these two owners to
Speaker 3: squabble it out and come through a resolution. So time
Speaker 3: is very much of the essence when both buying and
Speaker 3: selling property. And I can say I've picked up some
Speaker 3: very good bargains for clients because the seller has been squabbling.
Speaker 3: The parties have been squabbling, right, and so it's almost
Speaker 3: like work to their disadvantage. Polite lead utilize that psychologically
Speaker 3: to bargain.
Speaker 1: Right because they're not in an optimum negotiating position. Yeah right, Okay,
Speaker 1: tell me about the five siblings. Did they buy something
Speaker 1: they did? Yes, they did. Is it an investment property
Speaker 1: or are they living there?
Speaker 3: One I've done it twice now. One it was an
Speaker 3: investment property and the other was actually planning on being
Speaker 3: an investment property that ended up being the principal place
Speaker 3: of residence for one of their family members. But I
Speaker 3: think you have to have such a close and very
Speaker 3: open relationship within that family to be able to adequately
Speaker 3: undertake that task and maintain ownership over typically the medium
Speaker 3: to long term that you would hold a property. It's
Speaker 3: not a one or two year framework. You're looking at
Speaker 3: holding that property for I would say at least five, seven,
Speaker 3: ten years. Want to hope that everyone gets along in
Speaker 3: that lifestyle changes with those family members don't inadvertently cause
Speaker 3: a wedge in the process.
Speaker 1: It would be very interesting. Obviously, it's the thing that
Speaker 1: comes up. I imagine in principle, it's a good idea
Speaker 1: with some people. As you say, you need trust, you
Speaker 1: need a constant communication. And I think you need a
Speaker 1: plan and not just to buy, but you need a
Speaker 1: plan to manage it, as you say, as years go by,
Speaker 1: and you probably need an exit plan too. I remember
Speaker 1: dealing with very what the biggest joint venture that had
Speaker 1: ever been done at the time between a bank and
Speaker 1: an IT company. I was one of the the head
Speaker 1: of the one of the top four banks and one
Speaker 1: of the major IT companies in the world. And I
Speaker 1: was with this banker and I remember he said, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. I was asking all these questions about
Speaker 1: the droint venture, and he said, listen, the most important
Speaker 1: thing in the droint venture is knowing how to get out.
Speaker 2: I kept that in mind forever. You know, and the supplies,
Speaker 2: whether the three mates buying a.
Speaker 1: House or a bank is doing a ten year il
Speaker 1: sourcing deal for a billion dollars. Will take sure break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment with some questions. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Australian's Money Puzzle podcast and James Kirby.
Speaker 1: We're talking all things property and investments and interesting, very
Speaker 1: interesting in the first part of the show there in
Speaker 1: terms of the news, very newsy weekend property because it's
Speaker 1: becoming apparent this week and I think this year that
Speaker 1: the way it goes with the national economy national economics
Speaker 1: is that the states, many of them, particularly Victoria, are
Speaker 1: in debt, higher levels of death than they planned for
Speaker 1: many years. They have to find new sources of revenue.
Speaker 1: One of the few sources of revenue they can get
Speaker 1: ass is their own property market. That's why we have
Speaker 1: stamp duty and that's why it's very hard to shift
Speaker 1: any of these things. And land tax, and of course
Speaker 1: we're now seeing two state governments, the two big ones,
Speaker 1: Victoria and New Southwayes making moves on land tax. It's
Speaker 1: going to become a real issue this year for an investor.
Speaker 1: You need to be across what's happening in your state
Speaker 1: on land tax and the differences in the different states
Speaker 1: in land tax because they are now enormous, enormous range
Speaker 1: of tax, both the tax and the nest if you like,
Speaker 1: which is particularly deep in Victoria. Basically, if you want anything,
Speaker 1: you want to play land tax in Sydney, well you
Speaker 1: want anything over a Midian. I think it's one point
Speaker 1: seventy five to be precise. I only know this because
Speaker 1: I was writing about it during the week. Okay, now
Speaker 1: some questions and comments. I believe you mentioned in Victoria
Speaker 1: property prices have not grown as strongly as they have
Speaker 1: in other states, and you also suggest that this is
Speaker 1: due to a new land tax regime. And I agree
Speaker 1: this may be the cause, but it's also valid to
Speaker 1: say it's a positive for young families who are trying
Speaker 1: to buy their first home. It seems to me that
Speaker 1: one of the intentional outcomes of this new taxes to
Speaker 1: discourage investors from bidding property prices ever higher. Therefore, this
Speaker 1: land tax may be helping to improve housing affordability in Victoria. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it will. If the job was the suppressed prices. It's
Speaker 1: done that. That's the slowest growing state in the land.
Speaker 1: And if you're a first to m buar then you'd
Speaker 1: be happy with that. Yes, take that point on board, Billy,
Speaker 1: I think that's about all we could say on that one.
Speaker 2: Is anything you want to add to that, kiddie.
Speaker 3: I would probably say that it's a misnomer that people
Speaker 3: believe investors drive up property prices. In my experience, those
Speaker 3: that are the most likely to drive up property prices
Speaker 3: are owner occupiers, as they have a stronger emotional investment
Speaker 3: in propertys actually tend to be quite level headed and
Speaker 3: very price conscious. So I understand why the lay person
Speaker 3: may feel that investors negatively impact the market with regard
Speaker 3: to pricing. I would say, in my experience its owner
Speaker 3: occupiers that drive the prices far more substantially than investors.
Speaker 2: Have you any data back? I wonder have you?
Speaker 1: Has anyone ever done a doctorate on that one in
Speaker 1: the business schools?
Speaker 3: Maybe they should, absolutely, I wish I had data on hand,
Speaker 3: but I would say it's just my own undertakings and
Speaker 3: what I experience on the ground every single.
Speaker 2: All the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Actually, at one interesting point would be the post COVID
Speaker 3: price surge. That was a time where we had border
Speaker 3: closures and we had very low investor activity, and those
Speaker 3: prices went through the rows, and that was very much
Speaker 3: led by first home buyers and own occupiers. Very very
Speaker 3: little investor.
Speaker 1: Activity home space as such. Okay, yeah, not very interesting,
Speaker 1: all right, And if anyone has anything to act to that,
Speaker 1: let us know, all right, Melanie says, our foreign investors
Speaker 1: pushing up prices in the market or not. I read
Speaker 1: about this all the time. What are the numbers? Okay, man,
Speaker 1: the numbers are strange. The numbers, I will say, they're
Speaker 1: all over the place. The headline number is that foreign
Speaker 1: investors are not particularly important in the market. That is,
Speaker 1: they represent only one or two percent of prices. You
Speaker 1: wonder sometimes what people really mean when they say foreign
Speaker 1: investors strictly as to that someone sitting off shore and
Speaker 1: buying a house here. Domestically, it's quite a small number. However,
Speaker 1: you got some really strange variations in the first three
Speaker 1: months this year. According to National Australia Bank, in one
Speaker 1: market Victoria, the number of new homes in the city
Speaker 1: of Melbourne in the suburbs, new newly built homes. There
Speaker 1: was more foreign buyers of those homes than there were
Speaker 1: investors domestic investors.
Speaker 2: That's extraordinary. But there's two things going on there, right.
Speaker 1: You have the exceptional immigration attraction of Victoria and you
Speaker 1: have the exceptional turnoff on Victoria for the domestic investor
Speaker 1: who's got the highest taxes. So those two things explain that.
Speaker 1: So a shifting situation there, Melanie, But very broadly on
Speaker 1: a highline level nationally in terms of big volumes, that's
Speaker 1: not they are not particularly important. But then there are
Speaker 1: quite curious variations to that, and one of them was
Speaker 1: in Victoria this year. Have you acted for foreign investor
Speaker 1: kid in buying in Sydney or do you come up
Speaker 1: against advocates that.
Speaker 2: Have it as part of their business.
Speaker 3: Good question, James. I do manage a lot of foreign
Speaker 3: investor purchases, but proportionally within my business it's a very
Speaker 3: low number. I'm for there are some other buyers advocates
Speaker 3: where that is their bread and butter, like that is
Speaker 3: particularly their cohort. But I agree with you, and it's
Speaker 3: with regard to the data, it very much depends where
Speaker 3: you look. As you mentioned, there's a bit of a
Speaker 3: spread of data. The numbers jump around. The one thing
Speaker 3: that is very very common between any data that you
Speaker 3: look at with regard to this is the numbers are
Speaker 3: reasonably low overall. It's definitely not a case and again
Speaker 3: it's I understand there's a sentiment in this country that
Speaker 3: the foreign investors are coming along and they're buying out
Speaker 3: all the property and that this is why there's no
Speaker 3: property here for Aussie's or this is why crisis are
Speaker 3: going up, and it really is not the case. There's
Speaker 3: lots of hurdles and regulations that foreign investors must jump through,
Speaker 3: as well as the additional costs with regard to stamp duty,
Speaker 3: et cetera. There are a lot of hurdles foreign investors
Speaker 3: must jump through to purchase property here. So it's not
Speaker 3: as widespread and volumeous as I think Melanie may feel.
Speaker 2: It is terrific and thank you for that answer. Very good. Okay.
Speaker 1: Final question is not hard property invesment, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: volve your home and it's from Clint and Clint asks
Speaker 1: a quick question relating to claims on vehicle expenses when
Speaker 1: working between your home property and elsewhere. Many people now
Speaker 1: working from home. I'm wondering if it's the case to
Speaker 1: attribute all the kilamaters driveern between home and work. In
Speaker 1: a situation where someone works a few hours in the morning,
Speaker 1: drives to the office and were transforme to work for
Speaker 1: a few more hours, Clint, you are absolutely on the
Speaker 1: money on the zeitguidest there. Okay, everyone's working from home now,
Speaker 1: we know that. I certainly know that. This morning in
Speaker 1: our office downstairs. It's one of those days where you say, gosh,
Speaker 1: you know, the working from home thing is still alive
Speaker 1: and kicking, and you say, well, if you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm really working from home, I just went in for
Speaker 1: an hour, then surely then surely it's an expense for me,
Speaker 1: the person who works from home that I drove in
Speaker 1: and out to the office. And you would like to
Speaker 1: think that that's how it works. And as always, our
Speaker 1: friends at the ATO make sure they make sure that
Speaker 1: that's not how it works. Sorry to say, I've asked
Speaker 1: James Gerard fent the show who you know. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Kitty and I think Kitty was introduced to the show
Speaker 1: through James Gerrard and he in turn went to an accountant,
Speaker 1: Tim Ricardo.
Speaker 2: So horror research here, folks.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. I could read the whole thing
Speaker 1: off you. But basically, if there's an office in the
Speaker 1: city then you can claim it. So if you work
Speaker 1: for BHP and BHP of an office in Melbourne, then
Speaker 1: you can't claim it because you could have gone into
Speaker 1: you you could work in their office in there. So
Speaker 1: I think the only chance in terms of claiming network
Speaker 1: from home is where the employer does not provide any
Speaker 1: position or facidity for you to work in the city,
Speaker 1: and of course they don't have to do much to
Speaker 1: do that these days, or they have to do is
Speaker 1: provide a disk somewhere. So I'm afraid, just to clarify,
Speaker 1: you can claim a tax deduction for the cost of
Speaker 1: transport on trips to perform your work duties. We tend
Speaker 1: to work related conferences are to go between two or
Speaker 1: more separate places of employment, such as if you have
Speaker 1: more than one job. But guess what, ninety nine times
Speaker 1: out of one hundred, you can't because they always say
Speaker 1: no and you have to be very very clever to
Speaker 1: find a place. And I think it's about time they
Speaker 1: review that because really the world has changed, but the
Speaker 1: ATO isn't going to do it anytime soon.
Speaker 2: That's about it. I'm afraid for today. Sorry to end
Speaker 2: on such an unfortunate note.
Speaker 1: You can't claim you're you can't claim dropping into the
Speaker 1: opfice when you work from home. It's a travel expense.
Speaker 1: You can watch out for land tax. You should know
Speaker 1: what's going on that. The goalposts are changing, they really are,
Speaker 1: and they're making inter state competition quite interesting. As Kitty
Speaker 1: was saying earlier, just ow queens and is sitting there
Speaker 1: doing pretty well anyway. And if they were of that disposition,
Speaker 1: they could make themselves the attractive tax state for property investors.
Speaker 2: We don't know if they'll do that.
Speaker 1: They've got an election, so they're not going to do
Speaker 1: anything anytime soon, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you very much for today, Kitty.
Speaker 3: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: James your moving house which is always hell.
Speaker 3: It's a messy. I know this sounds not great. There's
Speaker 3: a little bit of.
Speaker 2: You did very well. Do you even concentrate?
Speaker 1: Are you moving out today or moving in today?
Speaker 2: Where are you or the best of luck with it all.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm sure lower workout and be a greatly
Speaker 1: a prosperous move. I'm sure the fullness of time, best
Speaker 1: of look with this. Thank you so much, thanks Kitty,
Speaker 1: and talk to you soon. Okay, folks, let's have some
Speaker 1: more questions. Keep those questions rolling. Do you know the
Speaker 1: email the money puzzle at the Australian dot com dot
Speaker 1: au Coko soon